The idea behind the project makes sense. Industrial waste heat occurs as a by-product of copper smelting in the Hamburg Aurubis plant which allows the use of energy-efficient heating for eastern Hafencity. This industrial waste heat is virtually free of CO2 and, through its use, future emissions of more than 20,000 tonnes of CO2 can be avoided per year.

enercity Contracting Nord GmbH, which specialises in decentralised heat supply solutions, is a company of Stadtwerke Hannover AG and takes on the waste heat from the Aurubis heat supply for its customers in eastern Hafencity.

For the city of Hamburg, the Aurubis and enercity project signifies a significant step in implementation of heat change. For the first time, an entire city district is being supplied almost entirely in a climate-friendly manner using industrial waste heat. The project is unique in its magnitude and sets new standards for intelligent heat supply in other cities in Germany as well.

Contractual partners invest 33 million euros in construction efforts

The heat recovery should go into operation in April 2018. Until then the contractual partners will take necessary construction measures in order to deliver the district heat for Hafencity Ost. Aurubis is investing roughly 17 million euros into modifying the facilities as well as relocating a heating line up to the boundaries of the plant. enercity Contracting Nord will lay a new heat transfer line (district heating transmission line) from the transfer point at the Aurubis plant to Hafencity. The heating transmission line will become a new energy centre that balances operationally fluctuating industrial heat dissipation for the district heat supply. The investment costs for the energy centre and enercity Contracting Nord heat transmission line total approximately 16 million euros.

Flagship project for dena's energy-efficient use of waste heat

Aurubis will receive subsidies in the amount of approximately 30 percent of the investments from Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology resources through the Reconstruction Loan Corporation. enercity Contracting Nord has been promised a similar amount of subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the funding programme of the Ministry for Environment and Energy for the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg as well as the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. The agreed district heating supply is one of ten case studies for the "Flagship of energy-efficient waste heat utilisation" project at the German Energy Agency.

Additional projects in development

Aurubis obtains the heat delivered to enercity from an industrial system consisting of three lines. Approximately 160 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of heat can be decoupled from each one, totalling almost 500 million kWh. The heat from one line is enough to supply eastern Hafencity, which is why only one line is being modified initially. Aurubis is planning to make the other two lines usable over the coming years as well for delivering district heating to the city of Hamburg. The technical, financial, and contractual foundations have not yet been laid for this, however.

About Aurubis

Based in Hamburg, Aurubis is the leading integrated copper group and also the world's largest copper recycler. Aurubis employs more than 6,400 employees with production facilities in Europe and the United States as well as an extensive service and distribution system for copper products in Europe, Asia and North America.

With its range of services, the company is in the top group in its industry. Its customers include companies in the semi-finished copper industry, the electric, electronics and chemical industry and suppliers in the renewable energy, construction and automobile industries.

The Aurubis stock belongs to the prime standard segment of the German Stock Exchange and is listed on the MDAX and the Global Challenges Index (GCX).

With annual sales of approximately 2.0 billion euros, Stadtwerke Hannover AG (enercity) is among the largest energy service providers in Germany. Under the umbrella brand "enercity" it offers electricity, natural gas, water and heat as well as energy-related services. With about 2,500 employees, enercity extends far beyond Hannover with energy services and nationwide deliveries in the key account sector. The contracting business segment is a central element of enercity's strategy. With its shareholdings – enercity Contracting GmbH, Danpower GmbH and Energie-Projektgesellschaft Langenhagen mbH – and sales of roughly 300 million euros, enercity belongs to the leading group of contracting providers in Germany.